Judging by the trailors and what I have gathered regarding this great movie, I feel that enough emphasis has not been placed on the role of the Persians in Alexander's life or in life in general in those days. Except for Roxana there are no other Persian characters in the movie, as it seems. What about Darius III the King of the Persian Empire at the time which Alexander had great respect and admiration for and he demonstrated it by giving him a grand funeral in Persopolis after defeating him and his death.

Alexander defeated the Persians and he conquered the world, because the whole civilized world at the time (besides Greece and ***) was part of the Persian Empire. Alexander wanted the Persian and the Greek civilizations to melt together and learn from each other as he was fascinated by the Persian civilization and empire. He even ordered his generals and soldiers to marry Persian women to further combine the two civilizations in 325-324 BC , and this is when he married his second Persian wife (after Roxana) who was named either Barsine or Stateira, daughter of Darius III.

Most of Alexander's life was spent in Persia and when he died he had so much admiration and respect for the Persian civilization that he died as much a Persian as a Greek.

Considering the fact the movie apparently attempted to be historically accurate, more emphasis should have been placed on the Persian factor and the Persian characters. From the trailors I get a feeling this part was partly ignored, I might feel differently when I watch the movie itself.

I think you have to realise, as I mentioned elsewhere, the trailer is a 'teaser trailer'. It is a rough first version. Of course there are going to be elements missing - otherwise it would be the whole film! Let's see the film before we 'assume' what is and isn't present.

But judging by the casting alone, which has Ms. Dawson as Roxana, I am not expecting too much accuracy when it is about the "other" side mainly the Persians.

Persians (Iranians) were (are) an aryan race. Even now (after all the mixing with first GREEKS, Arabs, Turks/Mongolians..) if you look at Persians you find a variety of looks and complections from fair hair and colored eyes to ....mostly olive skin and brown eyes but even today you almost rarely would see any Persian with Golden skin such as THE BEAUTIFUL Ms. Dawson's looks and complections.

A Persian "specially" back then when the race was more pure would Never look like her. (by the way I am Persian and my wife is actually from the region very close to where Roxana was born . Everyone thinks she is Scandinavian , that is how blond she is, and all of her family and people from that region generally are still to this day fair skinned. )

So I don't expect much respect to history when it comes to the Persians in this movie. But as you said we shall wait and see.

Hello All,
Dr. Sam - thank you for the link to the painting. I really like it, even though it may or may not represent an accurate likeness of Roxane, Alexander and who are those two on the right - Hephaestion and Bagaos!!!
The marriage bed is ready and Roxane is ready and Alexander has apparently turned his gaze away from his male delights. Maybe they are ready, too - for each other; they all seem to be stripped down and ready for action.
I hope Oliver Stone has seen this painting and reproduces it on screen. It will bring every horny teenager and equally horny old man (me) into the theatre. And, a byproduct of this will be that youngsters will learn about Alexander and maybe it will pique their interest in history. One can only hope; using sex as a learning aid, now there's a consept!!!!
Regards,
Larry

I agree with Dr. Sam. It APPEARS that Iran is going to be mis-represented by this film. If that's so, it's a crying shame. I am gay, but even I can see that Iranian women are among the most beautiful in the world, so why pick a European to play the role of Roxanna? Persian/Iranian culture is quite magnificent (even if the current government is terrible and would be hated by the great writers of Persian culture's heyday), and I hope that this is seen in the film.

from all the maps i gathered above (pix 1,2,3) of Persian Empire, it seems to me that Persian written above is interpretated in 2 ways:

1) A persian from persia

2) A persian from the persian empire

* if roxy's father was the King of Balkh. (Pix 4)
* Kings that time were used to having more than 1 wife.
* Her father could have married a darkish woman.
* A half cast Roxanne was born (there is black and there is 'black')

but there seems to be no historical textual description to proove my theory either right or wrong.